To whom can boxing turn to find a non-heavyweight superstar, a 1990s equivalent to the Fab Four members who illuminated the '80s with their brilliance?

Off his effort in a fourth-round technical knockout of Philadelphia's Meldrick Taylor on Saturday night at The Mirage, World Boxing Council super welterweight champion Terry Norris has the requisite talent to pick up the torch laid down by his illustrious predecessors. But whether Norris, of San Diego, can establish a presence at the highest level of his violent profession might depend on factors that have nothing to do with how well he delivers a right cross.

There are those who would tell you that Norris will be considered a superstar only when he starts doing soft-drink commercials and commentary for cable TV fights in which he is a non-participant, the out-of-the-ring blueprint that made Leonard one of the pre-eminent sports figures of his generation. If the force of Norris' personality ever matches the force of his punches, his bouts will become events, eagerly anticipated by the fringe and non-fans who are drawn only to the most special of performers.

Boxing purists, however, will tell you that Norris-Taylor represented a coronation. If a boxer truly needs a signature fight to elevate himself above the masses, Norris wrote his name down with a bold, sweeping flourish.

''This fight, this win, established Terry Norris as a superstar of the '90s,'' proclaimed promoter Dan Duva.

''A great champion,'' Taylor said of Norris. ''He should be considered the best fighter in the world.''

Norris thought a one-sided, unanimous-decision victory over Leonard should have brought him that acclaim. But his Feb. 9, 1991, demolition of an unsweetened Sugar Ray was widely dismissed as a hollow triumph because Leonard was not in his prime. Nor did a subsequent knockout of the faded Donald Curry do much to convince the public that a new superstar had emerged.

All of which made Norris' date with Taylor, the 25-year-old World Boxing Association welterweight champion, so significant. By consensus, Taylor was viewed as, pound for pound, one of the top three or four fighters in the world. And because Norris, 24, who went off as a slight 7-5 favorite, walked through him as he had Leonard and Curry, no one can dispute his right to a key to the executive washroom.

Although Norris (32-3, 18 KOs) lost the first round on two of the three official scorecards - ''I always take the first round to loosen up and figure out my opponent,'' he said.